Alasdair McDonnell

Alasdair McDonnell (1 September 1949-) was Leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party from 5 November 2011 to 14 November 2015, succeeding Margaret Ritchie and preceding Colum Eastwood.

Biography
Alasdair McDonnell was born in Cushendall, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on 1 September 1949 to an Irish Catholic family. McDonnell first won election to the Belfast City Council in 1977 as a member of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, and he served as the first Catholic Deputy Mayor of Belfast from 1995 to 1996. In 2004, he became the deputy leader of the SDLP, and he voiced his opposition to Sinn Fein, claiming that the party was organized in a "Soviet style", that it had former terrorists in its leadership, and that its supporters voted for it in an act of defiance. In 2015, Colum Eastwood defeated him during the party leadership elections.